Citizens-Investors merger secures Fed approval

The Federal Reserve has approved another large bank merger announced last year. 

The Fed said in a press release Tuesday that it had signed off on the proposed sale of Investors Bancorp in Short Hills, N.J., to Citizens Financial Group in Providence, R.I. The $3.5 billion deal was announced in July 2021. 

The approval had one notable condition – that the $188 billion-asset Citizens take part in 2023 stress tests to account for the fact that the $27 billion-asset Investors will not factor into this year’s capital buffer calculations. 

M&T Bank was given the same stipulation as part of its pending purchase of People’s United Financial.

The Fed’s approval removes another longstanding application from the docket at a time where federal banking agencies are evaluating how they review big bank mergers. 

Citizens and Investors have said they expect to close their deal by mid-2022.